Before it was an acclaimed gallery and arts venue, The Substation in Newport was a key part of the inner-west’s energy infrastructure.
How appropriate then that it’s now playing host to an art exhibition that explores themes of energy, power production and consumption.
In the Air is an exhibition curated by Dr. Jessica Clark features new and recent works by a selected group of Australian artists that highlight the realities of industry, infrastructure, and technology to the detriment of Country.
Among the seven artists whose works are on display in the exhibition is Melbourne’s Emily Parsons-Lord.
Parson’s-Lord’s work is concerned with air and explosions: materials of the climate crisis that speak to both the invisibility and the spectacle of collapse.
Through air and explosions Parsons-Lord’s work investigates the experience of witnessing this expanded unstable moment of multiple simultaneous catastrophes and the visceral
experience of freefall.
Other artists include Aidan Hartshorn, whose work examines the environmental and cultural
impacts of industrialisation in Australia’s high country; Tasmanian artist Cassie Sullivan, who has a responsive practice that crosses disciplines of moving image, photography, writing, sound, installation, and printmaking, and Sabrina Nungarrayi Gibson, from the tiny community of Nyirripi in the Northern Territory, whose acrylic paintings depict colourful and complex representations of Wirnpa Jukurrpa (Lightning Dreaming).
Having opened late last month In the Air will run until Saturday, August 16.
The Substation gallery is open from 11 am to 5 pm.
For more information: https://thesubstation.org.au/program/in-the-air
